A rose by any other name...

Now i had an experience today that caused me to do a bit of pondering, self-evaluation in a way.

I was talking to a girl at work when all of a sudden this other girl walks up and starts talking to her. The first thing that entered my mind was "excuse me!....slappa!". Then it occured to me, i was in my work gear and i may possibly look a bit like a sex offender. If you've ever seen me in my work gear you'll understand. So then i was like "fair enough, i'd probs ignore me to". Then i looked over at her (which up to this point i had not done), and to my surprize she was incredibly atractive, like, hot as! So i continued looking...but to avoid achieving creepy status with a stalker like stare (not my style), i pretended to watch the TV over her shoulder and every now and then slyly threw my glance in her direction. I was rather enjoying myself due to my percieved skill at perving and her very asthetically pleasing countenance.

As time passed i guess my friend cottoned on to the fact that she hadn't introduced us and that it could possibly be awkward for me. It wasn't. So she did the wierd forced intro. The sure-fire way to ease any awkwardness....not! I didn't really hear her name properly, but it sounded a bit exotic, so i asked her. She said it again, Roberta. And in an instant she went from being the hotty of my dreams to the 80 year old lady i used to go visit and entertain in a nursing home. Roberta! I dont know what happened but the small fact that she had an ugly name made her ugly in my head. It wasn't like her name was Clamidia or something. And Roberta is a fairly common name....in 50+ year old women! But lets face it, it is a fairly unatractive name. I guess it's like calling a vanilla slice a snot block (schoolyard term) puts people off them. Now don't get me wrong, i don't claim to have rad name. Yule is one of my middle names for craps sake. And im sorry to all the Robertas out there, don't get angry at me, blame your parents.

So from that point on i was half expecting her to start calling me dearie and rattle her falsies. Her name ruined it all! So i guess Shakespear was wrong when he wrote the verse "Whats in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" said by Juliet. I'm sure if Robertas name was something like Cloe or even Tiffany it would be a whole different ball game. This got me thinking. Does this mean im an incredibly superficial jerk? Or the fact that our intire incounter was based on superficialities (her ingoring me because i looked like crap and me stealthely checking her out and classing her from 1 to 10 in my head) mean that my harsh aprasel of her was just going along with the character of our breif meeting and was slightly justified? I believe, whether we like it or not, that we are all in some way shape or form, superficial. Even if its unconciously. Don't try and tell me that you've never walked through a shopping centre and thought "Jeez, I'm glad i dont look like that guy/girl" or " I'd like them if the rest of their face was as hot as their eyes". It's just the way it is. Some just embrace it more than others. ;)